In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, President Bashar Assad speaks during an interview in Damascus on Jan. 19. / SANA via AP

by Abdulrahman al-Masri and Jabeen Bhatti, Special for USA TODAY

by Abdulrahman al-Masri and Jabeen Bhatti, Special for USA TODAY

AMMAN, Jordan -- Syrians who escaped the dictatorship of Bashar Assad said Tuesday that the use of torture by the regime as documented by the release of hundreds of new photographs is commonplace.

"I was detained multiple times and tortured until my ribs and four of my fingers broke even though I was blindfolded, handcuffed and my legs were tied," said Nayef al-Sari, 40, an activist in Daraa, Syria. "This regime tortures because it can't handle the revolution on the ground and is trying to assert power again. It has much blood on its hands."

On Monday, a report by three international war crimes prosecutors obtained by USA TODAY and first reported by CNN and the Guardian newspaper accused the Syrian government of the "systemic" killing of 11,000 people detained by the regime from the start of the revolution in March 2011 until last August.

The report is based on smuggled photos taken by a defector who worked with the military police photographing the bodies for death certificates of regime opponents who were tortured and starved to death.

On Tuesday, the group Human Rights Watch accused the United States of solely focusing on peace talks rather than putting "real pressure" on the Assad regime to end its campaign of systematic murder and bring those responsible to account. The group also accused Russia and China of shielding their ally Syria from concrete action at the United Nations.

"We cannot afford to wait for the distant prospect of a peace accord before the killing of 5,000 civilians a month comes to an end," Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said during the release of the group's annual report in Berlin Tuesday. "The mass atrocities being committed in Syria should have equal focus to the peace process."

Peace talks overseen by the United Nations and pushed by the Obama administration are scheduled to begin Wednesday in Geneva. But Syrian opponents to Assad have not decided whether they will attend because they say the focus should be on bringing Assad to justice.

"We see that the regime, in its savage and criminal practices, have obstructed any chance at the success of this solution," said Islamic Front, the largest umbrella group of Syrian rebels, in a statement. "The regime heads towards Geneva 2 with its barrel bombs, its sinful blockades, its policy of systematic starvation, its savagery in torturing prisoners to death, its murder of children, rape of activists and committing of massacres with its chemical weapons, not leaving any space for dialogue."

The new report of atrocities by Assad's regime is based on a review of the smuggled photos of by a team of internationally renowned war crimes prosecutors and forensic experts. The team says the photos represent "direct evidence" of "systematic torture and killing" by the Assad regime.

The bodies the photographed since the civil war began, showed signs of starvation, brutal beatings, strangulation, and other forms of torture and killing," wrote the investigators: Sir Desmond de Silva, former chief prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Lione; Sir Geoffrey Nice, former lead prosecutor of ex-President Milosevic of Yugoslavia at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; and David M. Crane, also a former Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

"Overall there was evidence that a significant number of the deceased were emaciated and a significant minority had been bound and/or beaten with rod-like objects."

The report is based on nearly 50,000 photos taken by a defector named "Caesar" in the document who worked with the military police photographing the bodies brought from detention centers: The reason for the photographing of executed persons was to permit a death certificate to be produced without families be required to see the body and therefore avoiding explanations as to cause of death and also to confirm these executions had been carried out, the report said.

Caesar, whose name was changed to protect his safety, did not witness the torture or executions personally. He fled the country with the photos on a USB drive.

The report calls for Assad to stand trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity, saying there is enough "clear evidence" to hold a tribunal.

"This is a smoking gun," David Crane, one of the report's authors, told CNN. "Any prosecutor would like this kind of evidence -- the photos and the process. This is direct evidence of the regime's killing machine."

Human Rights Watch says Assad must be tried for war crimes. But some Syrian activists doubt this will ever happen. They say Assad paid no price when he gassed hundreds of families to death last year in an attack that President Obama had said warranted a military response from the West. No such response came.

"Before the revolution everyone who opposed the regime in even the smallest thought or action was arrested and tortured," said al-Sari. "I know this bloody regime and it will not change but will escalate: Every time it loses something on the ground and gets weaker, its brutality increases."